Surprise Caramel ‘Mallow Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

February 10th marks my first baby’s 6th birthday! Wow! I’m not really sure where the time has gone. I’ve been spending the last few days going over pictures of when he was a newborn. It has really brought back a lot of first time mom feels!

Someday maybe I’ll post his birth story for you, but for now I want to tell you all about the cupcakes we made for his birthday party (I know, priorities). One thing you should know about me is that I’m kind of a cake snob. I really enjoy baking cakes and making my own frosting. I also enjoy eating cake with lots of frosting. For real, give me every corner piece!! With that being said, I’m all about keeping it simple with a jacked up boxed cake. Frosting, in my opinion, should always be made from scratch. Don’t hate me for saying that, but you can’t deny how the pre-made frosting from the store tastes…..well….pre-made. I promise you, though, making your own frosting is not as hard as it sounds! Go here to get the recipe for the frosting I used on these cupcakes.

The Cupcakes

Before I give you the recipe and send you on your way, let me tell you about these individual cakes of heaven. THEY ARE SO DANG GOOD. I really could not keep my hands off of them. In fact, I had three of these glorious cakes and I fully enjoyed every morsel! I only felt a little bit guilty for having three of them, but that guilt was short lived. They are that good! From the buttercream to the moist chocolate cake to the marshmallow and caramel center……my mouth is starting to water just typing this! Everyone at the party raved at how good they were!

Don’t ask how I left one of the essential ingredients out of this picture…..the caramel!

So you may be surprised, but I did use a box cake. Using a box cake is easy AND it can taste great too, but let me share with you a little secret that I learned a few years back in a cake decorating class I took. To make a box cake taste REALLY good, here’s the secret:

Add one more egg than what the box calls for (if the box calls for 3 eggs, add 4 eggs instead)

Instead of oil, use butter and double the amount (if the box calls for 1/2 C. oil, use 1 C. butter in place of the oil)

Replace the water with equal amounts of milk

You will seriously be amazed at the difference these 3 little exchanges can make! You can do this with any kind of boxed cake. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

For these cupcakes, I used a devils food cake mix. I love devils food cake. It’s so good it’s almost sinful (no pun intended….ok maybe it was intentional). I mixed the batter with the above exchanges on the box and poured the batter in a regular sized muffin tin that I previously lined with muffin liners and sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray. You can probably tell in the picture but I totally overfilled my muffin tin. I recommend filling each cup halfway versus the 3/4 that I did.

Once you have the batter poured into your muffin tin, take a large marshmallow and stuff it in the center of the batter of each muffin. It will look something a little like this:

See how I over filled these? You live and you learn, right?

Next, bake these bad boys according the directions on the box. Start with the least amount of time recommended and then add 1-2 minutes at a time thereafter. Definitely do not want to over-bake these.

In my haste to shove these in my mouth, I forgot to take a picture so that you could see what these look like once they are removed from the oven. The marshmallow will have “disappeared” a bit, so to speak. There may also be some remnants of marshmallow left at the top around the cake part of the cupcake.

Once out of the oven, put another large marshmallow in the center where the original marshmallow was…..yours might look something like this:

You can see that the cupcakes are baked and I’ve placed a second marshmallow directly in the middle where the original marshmallow had been.

Put the pan back into the oven for 2 mins until the marshmallows are melty.

The marshmallow is melty and has expanded a bit to fit the center of the cupcake.

Unfortunately this is the part where we wait until the cupcakes cool completely. Once they have cooled, however, add about 1/2 a tablespoon of caramel in the middle, on top of the marshmallow. I used a very thick caramel that I made using a can of sweetened condensed milk. If you want to know how I did it, click here. You will not regret it! There are other kinds of caramel that would be suitable to use as well, like Smuckers Toppings Caramel flavored in the jar; but whatever you decide to use, it MUST be thick otherwise it will just soak into the cake.

Now, top with your favorite buttercream frosting. I recommend using this Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting that is to die for and it’s the perfect compliment to these cupcakes. You can find the recipe here.

And now for the best part: eating them! Definitely hide a couple for yourself because these will not last long with family and guests around.

Directions

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix the Devil’s Food cake according the package instructions (or go back towards the top of this post under the heading “the cupcakes” to read how to make it even better!)

Fill each muffin cup 1/2 way. Do not over-fill.

Push large marshmallows into the center of each batter-filled muffin cup.

Bake according the directions on the cake mix box

When the cupcakes are done, the center of each cupcake will almost be hollow where the marshmallow was. Place another marshmallow in the center of each cupcake once again.

Bake for an additional 2 minutes until the marshmallow becomes melty and starts to expand to fill the hollow space.

Let cool completely

Add about 1/2 a TBLS of caramel sauce to the center of the cupcake on top of the marshmallow.

Frost the cupcakes making sure you cover the center to give your guests that “surprise” effect!

Most importantly, thank you for reading my post. I’d love to hear if you tried making these and what you think in the comments. What would you do differently? What are some other recipes you’d like me to share with you?